More visitors, less time at Potala Palace
Move to handle surge in tourists due to rail link
Time limits will be placed on visits to Lhasa's Potala Palace to help the UN World Heritage site cope with a rising tide of tourists expected to travel to the region on the new Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
The railway is expected eventually to bring 5,000 to 6,000 tourists to Tibet each day, an increase of 15 to 20 per cent, and an estimated 2.5 million tourists will visit Tibet in 2010, surging to 6 million in 2020.
To manage the increase in tourists, the regional cultural relics department has raised the daily visitor quota at the 7th century palace from 1,500 to 2,300 and plans to limit the time visitors can spend inside, a Xinhua report said. Visitors will be barred from some palace halls and people can only enter others from one entrance and exit from another.
Despite the quota being lifted, many visitors will still miss out, Xinhua quoted Nyima Cering, head of the regional department of cultural relics, as saying.
A palace management official said: 'What we care about is not how much more income we can generate from entrance fees but how to better protect this precious site.'
Tibet's Development and Reform Commission said yesterday ticket prices for the region's tourist sites, including the Potala Palace, which costs 100 yuan to enter, would not change.
Five train services feed into the Qinghai-Tibet line, departing from Beijing, Chengdu , Chongqing , Lanzhou and Xining .
The Potala Palace was built in the 7th century by Tibetan king Songtsa Gambo and was extended in the 17th century by the fifth Dalai Lama.
The government spent 55 million yuan repairing the palace, also known as the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas, between 1989 and 1994, Xinhua reported. The second phase of the repairs, budgeted to cost 180 million yuan, started in 2002 and is due to be completed next year.
